Chock full of comics visuals, this collaboration between Art Spiegelman and Pilobolus pulls together the language of movement and cartoons in a one-of-a-kind piece. Here's a preview from Dartmouth, where it premiered on June 24, 2010:

This is an informative, short interview (it runs 4:47) with Mike Shapiro, a fellow magazine gag cartoonist whose work appears in Barron's, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and other publications. Mike is right when he mentions that the more you draw, the better you get. He alos points out that you have to read a little bit of everything; you have to be aware of what's going on: trends, popular culture, buzzwords -- all this is part of the writing process of being a good gag cartoonist.

Here are a few photos from the Bunny Bash, an annual event held at Bunny Hoest's North Shore home in Long Island. She graciously opens up the Hoest castle to cartoonists from all over.

Hmm. Giant cut out of a bunny by the mailbox? This must be Bunny Hoest's place!

Adrian Sinnott and Dotti Sinnott: a wonderful illustrator and his talented daughter. Adrian is Chair of the Long Island chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, otherwise known as the Berndt Toast Gang. Adrian shares some Bunny Bash photos at his blog.

Sam Viviano draws on a couple of commemorative cards. One is in honor of Jerry Jurman's 80th birthday. The other is to give to Lee Ames. He recently moved from California, back to the Long Island area.

Don Orehek, Joe Giella, Mike Lynch.

Long Island traffic. Nothing like it! UGH!

Sorry to say that there were some people I didn't get a chance to say hi to: Stan Goldberg, Frank Bolle, Mort Drucker, Ed Steckley, and others.

Roland Coe, perhaps best known for his pre-war NY Post "Crosstown Cartoons." He had a wonderful sense of character movement and a sweeping wash style. One of those journeyman cartoonists, who did a lot in his day. Heck, he was a professional cartoonist at the age of fifteen. Unfortunately, he is largely forgotten today.

Marty Links was the creator of the cartoon panel BOBBY SOX, a comic that out-ran its fashion based title due to its longevity -- So, Ms. Links changed the name of the feature from BOBBY SOX (which was the title from 1944 to 1951) to EMMY LOU (1951-1979). More BOBBY SOX/EMMY LOU samples here.

[...] Mr. Hayes, a native of Newburgh, N. Y., came to New York City in the twenties to study at the Art Students League or, as he puts it, "to bum around for a while." Later he joined the ad­vertising art staff of the New York Journal, where he stayed for 12 years. After a stretch of comic book work for King Features, he joined Consolidated News Features as general art handyman, doing sports and editorial cartoons and, at one time, three daily comic strips—"Pop," "Silent Sam" and "Witty Kitty." Besides "Chip" he still does "Silent Sam," also known as "Adamson's Ad­ventures."

Fred Neher (1903-2001), whose single panel comic strip LIFE'S LIKE THAT was syndicated for 43 years. Nary an example of the panel was to be found by me on the Web. Yeah, 43 years. And I found just one small JPEG of it online. Please let me know if you have better luck ....

Creator of MUTT AND JEFF, Bud Fisher (1885-1954). Fisher arguably created the modern comic strip -- he certainly was one of the earliest creators to hit it big. He soon farmed MUTT AND JEFF out to unnamed ghosts while continuing to reap the majority of the feature's profit.

People forget how big the strip was. And there was ancillary income. For instance, there was a series of animated MUTT & JEFF shorts (a link to one here). Fisher, ever the egomaniac, was fond of telling people that he wrote and drew all of the cartoons all by himself -- in the paper and on screen.

Every generation has its cartoony bad kid(s). Max and Moritz, German prototypes of the Katzenjammer Kids, were a 19th century series of stories by Wilhelm Busch.

Like Hans and Fritz, Max and Moritz' only purpose in life was to play sadistic, practical jokes. Originally published in 1865, and consisting of a mere 7 episodes, the comics were reprinted in over 30 languages, so reports Lambiek.

Rudolph Dirks was inspired, and created THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS -- perhaps the most significant and longest running "bad boy" comic strip. A tradition continued by other characters like DENNIS THE MENACE, Calvin -- as well as supporting cartoon players like Reggie (both in ARCHIE and RICHIE RICH -- although, of course, not the same "Reggie," natch!), Spooky (from CASPER), Goofus (of GOOFUS & GALLANT) ... and, well, I'm sure there are more.

Bad boys are still popular. MAX UND MORITZ continues to live today, with numerous adaptations of their adventures; most recently, the German theatrical film MAX UND MORITZ RELOADED in 2005.

Here is a black and white stop motion version below (coupled with an ad for the new DVD set). While I cannot place this, it sure looks like its 50+ years old -- if not older:

It started when fellow illustrator Guy Francis challenged me to a duel of banjo-playing pigs. Now, other illustrators have become involved and we're inviting you to create a banjo-playing pig of your own!

ITEM 1: There is going to be a large size treasury of CUL DE SAC comic strips, titled CUL DE SAC: GOLDEN TREASURY OF KEEPSAKE GARLAND CLASSICS drawn by my pal Richard Thompson, coming to your bookstore or online bookshop soon. More at Richard's site.

I have no right to sell the above Baltimore Oriole t-shirt, which I had put up for sale a couple of weeks ago thru my Zazzle store.

"Unfortunately, it appears that your product, Baltimore Oriole, contains content that is not suitable for printing at Zazzle.com."

I got the above note in my email in box last week.

Sure, as you may remember, I drew my own color sketch of the Baltimore Oriole that I had seen in my very own yard. The bird drawings drew a lot of comments and so I put some of those images on t-shirts for sale via Zazzle. Why not?

Well, that was NOT a good idea according to the Zazzle on-line store:

"Design contains an image or text that infringes on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and at their request we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to intellectual property claims."

Hard to say how this may distinguish itself from a lot of other loud, violent movies arriving at the multiplex. Rogen and Chou sure look good, but the plot is right outta a 1940s comic book. Won't this generation find it laughable that a newspaper publisher (Rogen's Dad in the movie, played by Tom Wilkinson) can be -- uh -- powerful? And a threat to the mob/crips/bloods?

Here is the song "I'm the Guy," a comic song of 1912, with lyrics by the one and only Rube Goldberg and music by Bert Grant. Or, as the sheet music credits read:

Ravings by Rube Goldberg and Noise by Bert Grant

Billy Murray sings "I'm the Guy," a saying popularized by Rube, so far as I can tell, in comc strip form.

Then there were the "I'm the Guy" pinback (small) buttons. There were a lot of these small comedy buttons, although none are photographed in any detail on the ol' Web so far as I can see. Each one would have a goofy looking guy (mostly drawn by Rube, but not always), usually forking his own thumb towards his own mug, declaring that he, himself, indeed, is The Guy.

I don't know why, but I have always enjoyed looking at Edward Ardizzone's illustrations. Even when I was a wee tot, in the basement children's section of the Lawrence (KS) Public Library (before it got flooded in the 1970s and they built the new (now old) library), I would check out and re-check out his LITTLE TIM books.

I remember trying to figure out why I liked the drawings. Even though I was a little kid, I was still interested in what it was that made drawings "good." Maybe it was the easy, flowing ink line. Maybe it was his choice of colors. I had no idea that Ardizzone had been commissioned to paint a watercolor of the Queen's coronation or that, before that, he was Official War Artist during WWII. (During the years of the Blitz, he was once arrested as a suspected "enemy spy" by the Home Guard when caught sketching in the East End.)

In SKETCHES FOR FRIENDS, which was published in 2002, I learned that he was also a letter writer, and he adorned those letters with ink and, sometimes, watercolor.

The 2 letters above are to his granddaughter Susannah, lovingly preserved since the mid-1950s.

I now look at the letters like I did as a kid. There are the same lush watercolors and the inky characters, always in motion.

You can feel the weight in his drawings. His large caricature of himself leans a bit to the right, like a large vessel listing; while the doctor stands like a cheery martinet, tilting his head, while saying, "I pronounce you cured[.]"

The Gentleman's Lavatory, drawn in gray and yellow tones. So much action in this one! And the look on the faces -- from quietly desperate to becalmed.

Above from a 1973 letter. What a wonderful thank you note!

I urge you to seek out this book. All these years later, I still love to linger over his drawings.